OFFICIAL

Terminology (1)
Virtualization is associated with several key concepts, products, and features.

Term Definition Examples

Operating system Software designed to allocate physical resources Microsoft Windows,
to applications Linux
Application Software that runs on an operating system, Microsoft Office, Chrome
consuming physical resources
Hypervisor Specialized operating system designed to run ESXi, Workstation,
VMs Fusion
Virtual machine Specialized application that abstracts hardware
resources into software
Guest The operating system that runs in a VM (also Microsoft Windows,
called the guest operating system) Linux
Host Physical computer that provides resources to the
ESXi hypervisor

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M02_vSphere and Virtualization Overview | 1-6

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

Terminology (2)

Term Definition
vSphere Server virtualization product of VMware that combines the ESXi
hypervisor and the vCenter Server management platform
Cluster Group of ESXi hosts whose resources are shared by VMs
vSphere vMotion Feature that supports the migration of powered-on VMs from host
to host without service interruption
vSphere HA Cluster feature that protects against host hardware failures by
restarting VMs on hosts that are running normally
vSphere DRS Cluster feature that uses vSphere vMotion to place VMs on hosts and
ensure that each VM receives the resources that it needs

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M02_vSphere and Virtualization Overview | 1-7

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

About vSphere
vSphere is the virtualization platform that
includes two core administrative components for
running virtual machines:
• ESXi: Hypervisor on which you run virtual
machines
• vCenter: Central administration platform for
ESXi hosts, virtual machines, storage, and
networking

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M02_vSphere and Virtualization Overview | 1 - 12

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

Learner Objectives
• Describe the ESXi host architecture
• Navigate the Direct Console User Interface (DCUI) to configure an ESXi host
• Recognize the user account best practices
• Install an ESXi host
• Configure the ESXi host settings

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M03_Installing and Configuring ESXi | 1-5

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

About ESXi
ESXi is a bare-metal hypervisor that is licensed as a part of vSphere. A free version is also available
as a standalone server.

ESXi has the following features:

• High security:
– Host-based firewall
– Memory hardening
– Kernel module integrity
– Trusted Platform Module (TPM 2.0)
– UEFI secure boot
– Encrypted core dumps
• Small disk footprint
• Quick boot for faster patching and upgrades
• Installable on hard disks, SAN LUNs, SSD,
SATADOM, and diskless hosts
© 2022 VMware, Inc. M03_Installing and Configuring ESXi | 1-6
OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

ESXi Installation Requirements

Ensure that the host meets the minimum hardware configurations supported by ESXi 8.0:
• Supported server platform
• At least two CPU cores
• At least 8 GB of physical RAM, 12 GB for a production environment
• One or more Gigabit or faster Ethernet controllers
• Boot disk of at least 32 GB of persistent storage

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M03_Installing and Configuring ESXi | 1-7

OFFICIAL
Centralized Management with vCenter

© 2019 VMware Inc. All rights reserved.

 OFFICIAL

About the vCenter Management Platform

vCenter acts as a central
administration point for ESXi
hosts and virtual machines. The
ESXi hosts and virtual machines
connected in a network:
• Directs the actions of VMs
and hosts
• Runs on a Linux-based
appliance

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M04_Deploying and Configuring vCenter | 1-6

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

About vCenter Server Appliance

vCenter Server Appliance is a prepackaged Linux-based VM, optimized for running vCenter and
associated services.
The vCenter Server Appliance package contains the following software:
• Photon OS
• PostgreSQL database
• vCenter services
During deployment, you can select the vCenter Server Appliance size for your vSphere environment
and the storage size for your database requirements.

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M04_Deploying and Configuring vCenter | 1-7

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

vCenter Services
vCenter services include:
• vCenter Server
• vSphere Client
• License service
• Content Library
• vSphere Lifecycle Manager
When you deploy vCenter
Server Appliance, all these
services are included.

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M04_Deploying and Configuring vCenter | 1-8

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

vCenter Architecture
vSphere Client, vCenter database, and managed hosts supports vCenter.

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M04_Deploying and Configuring vCenter | 1-9

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

About Enhanced Linked Mode

With Enhanced linked mode, you can log in to the vSphere Client and manage the inventories of all
the vCenter instances in the group:
• You can link up to 15 vCenter instances in one vCenter Single Sign-On domain.
• You can create an enhanced linked mode group during the deployment of vCenter Server
Appliance.

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M04_Deploying and Configuring vCenter | 1 - 12

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

ESXi and vCenter Communication

The vSphere Client is the primary method to manage ESXi hosts. vSphere Client communicates
directly with vCenter.

If vCenter is not available, you use VMware Host Client to communicate directly with the ESXi host.

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M04_Deploying and Configuring vCenter | 1 - 13

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

vCenter Scalability

Metric vCenter 8.0

Hosts per vCenter instance 2,500
Powered-on VMs per vCenter instance 40,000
Registered VMs per vCenter instance 45,000
Hosts per cluster 96
VMs per cluster 8,000

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M04_Deploying and Configuring vCenter | 1 - 14

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

About vSphere Licenses

VMware provides a number of vSphere products to suit your needs.

vSphere Essential Kit vSphere Essential Plus vSphere Standard vSphere Enterprise
Kit Plus
For small businesses For small businesses Entry-level solution Full range of features
(up to three hosts with (up to three hosts with for basic server for transforming your
up to two CPUs each) up to two CPUs each) consolidation data center into a
simplified cloud
infrastructure
vCenter and ESXi vCenter and ESXi vCenter and ESXi vCenter and ESXi
vSphere vMotion, vSphere vMotion, vSphere vMotion,
vSphere Storage vSphere Storage vSphere Storage
vMotion, vSphere HA, vMotion, vSphere HA, vMotion, vSphere HA,
vSphere Data vSphere Replication vSphere Trust
Protection, vSphere Authority, VM
Replication encryption, vSphere
Replication

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M04_Deploying and Configuring vCenter | 1 - 31

OFFICIAL
vCenter Roles and Permissions

© 2019 VMware Inc. All rights reserved.

 OFFICIAL

About vCenter Permissions

Using the access control system, the vCenter administrator can define user privileges to access
objects in the inventory.

The following concepts are important:

• Privilege: An action that can be performed
• Role: A set of privileges
• Object: The target of the action
• User or group: Indication of who can perform
the action
• Permission: Gives one user or group a role (set
of privileges) for the selected object

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M04_Deploying and Configuring vCenter | 1 - 55

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

Applying Permissions: Scenario 1

A permission can propagate down the object hierarchy to all sub-objects, or a permission can apply
only to a specific object.

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M04_Deploying and Configuring vCenter | 1 - 60

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

Applying Permissions: Scenario 2

When a user is a member of multiple groups with permissions on the same object, the user is
assigned the union of privileges assigned to the groups for that object.

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M04_Deploying and Configuring vCenter | 1 - 61

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

Activity: Applying Group Permissions (1)

If Group1 has the Administrator role and Group2 has the No Access role, what permissions does
Greg have?

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M04_Deploying and Configuring vCenter | 1 - 62

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

Activity: Applying Group Permissions (2)

Greg has Administrator privileges.
Greg is assigned the union of privileges assigned to Group1 and Group2.

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M04_Deploying and Configuring vCenter | 1 - 63

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

Applying Permissions: Scenario 3

A user can be a member of multiple groups with permissions on different objects. In this case, the
same permissions apply for each object on which the group has permissions, as though the
permissions were granted directly to the user.

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M04_Deploying and Configuring vCenter | 1 - 64

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

Applying Permissions: Scenario 4

A user (or group) is given only one role for any given object.
Permissions defined explicitly for the user on an object take precedence over all group permissions
on that same object.

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M04_Deploying and Configuring vCenter | 1 - 65

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

About Global Permissions

Global permissions support assigning privileges across solutions from the global root object:
• Span solutions, such as vRealize Orchestrator, and multiple vCenter instances
• Give a user or group privileges for all objects in all vCenter hierarchies

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M04_Deploying and Configuring vCenter | 1 - 67

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

About vCenter Log Levels

vCenter services create their own log files, which can be used for troubleshooting purposes.
You can set log levels to control the quantity and type of information stored by vCenter.
Examples of when to set log levels:
• When troubleshooting complex issues, set the log level to verbose or trivia.
• For controlling the amount of information being stored in the log files.
Option Description
None Turns off logging
Error (errors only) Displays only error log entries
Warning (errors and Displays warning and error log entries
warnings)
Info (normal logging) Displays information, error, and warning log entries
Verbose Displays information, error, warning, and verbose log entries
Trivia (extended verbose) Displays information, error, warning, verbose, and trivia log entries

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M04_Deploying and Configuring vCenter | 1 - 75

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

Setting Log Levels

You can configure the amount of log information detail that vCenter collects in log files:
• Edit the log levels in the vSphere Client.
• More verbose logging requires more space on your vCenter system.

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M04_Deploying and Configuring vCenter | 1 - 76

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

About Virtual Switches

Virtual switches connect VMs to the physical network.
They provide connectivity between VMs on the same ESXi host or on different ESXi hosts.
They also support VMkernel services, such as vSphere vMotion migration, iSCSI, NFS, and access to
the management network.

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M05_Configuring vSphere Networking | 1-6

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

Types of Virtual Switches

A virtual network supports standard and distributed switches. Both switch types are elastic, ports are
created and removed automatically:

• Standard switch: • Distributed switch:

– Virtual switch that is configured for a single – Virtual switch that is configured for an entire
host. data center.
– Up to 2,000 hosts can be attached to the
same distributed switch.
– The configuration is consistent across all
attached hosts.
– Hosts must either have an Enterprise Plus
license or belong to a vSAN cluster.

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M05_Configuring vSphere Networking | 1-7

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

Types of Virtual Switch Connections

A virtual switch has specific connection types:
• VM ports
• VMkernel ports
– IP storage, vSphere vMotion migration, vSphere Fault Tolerance, vSAN, vSphere Replication,
and the ESXi management network
• Uplink ports
VM ports and VMkernel ports exist in port groups.

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M05_Configuring vSphere Networking | 1-8

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

About VLANs and Virtual Switch Tagging

ESXi provides VLAN support by assigning a
VLAN ID to a port group. ESXi supports 802.1Q
VLAN tagging.
Virtual switch tagging is one of the supported
tagging policies:
• Frames from a VM are tagged as they exit the
virtual switch.
• Tagged frames arriving at a virtual switch are
untagged before they are sent to the
destination VM.
• The effect on performance is minimal.
Physical switch ports must be configured as trunk
ports.

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M05_Configuring vSphere Networking | 1 - 10

OFFICIAL
Virtual Switch Networking Policies

© 2019 VMware Inc. All rights reserved.

 OFFICIAL

About Networking Policies

As an administrator, you set networking policies on virtual switches to configure virtual network
properties, such as security, performance, and availability.
Depending on the virtual switch type, networking policies can be applied at different levels of the
virtual switch.

Virtual Switch Type Set Default Policy At Override Default Policy At

vSphere Standard Switch Standard switch level Port group level
vSphere Distributed Switch Distributed port group level Individual port level

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M05_Configuring vSphere Networking | 1 - 20

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

Configuring Security Policies

As an administrator, you can define security policies at both the standard switch level and the port
group level:
• Promiscuous mode: Allow or disallow all traffic to be forwarded, regardless of the destination.
• MAC address changes: Accept or reject inbound traffic when the MAC address is altered by the
guest.
• Forged transmits: Accept or reject outbound traffic when the MAC address is altered by the
guest.

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M05_Configuring vSphere Networking | 1 - 21

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

Traffic-Shaping Policies
Network traffic shaping is a mechanism for limiting a virtual machine’s consumption of available
network bandwidth.
Average rate, peak rate, and burst size are configurable.
Network traffic shaping is deactivated by default.

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M05_Configuring vSphere Networking | 1 - 22

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

Configuring Outbound Traffic Shaping

A traffic-shaping policy is defined by average bandwidth, peak bandwidth, and burst size.
Parameters apply to each virtual NIC in the standard switch.
On a standard switch, traffic shaping controls only outbound traffic. Outbound traffic travels from the
VMs to the virtual switch and out onto the physical network.

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M05_Configuring vSphere Networking | 1 - 23

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

Configuring NIC Teaming and Failover

With NIC teaming, you can
increase the network capacity of
a port group by including two or
more physical NICs in a team.
Add the physical NICs (or
uplinks) to the Active uplinks
group.

VM traffic is load balanced across the Active uplinks using the

selected Load balancing option.
© 2022 VMware, Inc. M05_Configuring vSphere Networking | 1 - 24
OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

Load Balancing Method: Originating Virtual Port ID

With the load balancing method that is based on the originating virtual port ID, a virtual machine’s
outbound traffic is mapped to a specific physical NIC.

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M05_Configuring vSphere Networking | 1 - 25

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

Load Balancing Method: Source MAC Hash

A virtual machine's outbound traffic, when load balanced using the source MAC hash method, is
mapped to a specific physical NIC based on the virtual NIC’s MAC address.

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M05_Configuring vSphere Networking | 1 - 26

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

Load Balancing Method: Source and Destination IP Hash

With the IP-based load balancing method, a NIC for each outbound packet is selected based on its
source and destination IP addresses.

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M05_Configuring vSphere Networking | 1 - 27

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

Detecting and Handling Network Failure

Network failures are monitored and detected by
the VMkernel. The VMkernel monitors the link
state and performs beacon probing (if selected)
on one second intervals to ensure network
uptime.
If the VMkernel determines a network failure, the
VMkernel notifies physical switches of changes in
the physical location of a MAC address.
Failover is implemented by the VMkernel based
on configurable parameters:
• Failback: How the physical adapter is returned
to active duty after recovering from failure.
• Load-balancing option: Use explicit failover
order. Always use the vmnic uplink at the top
of the active adapter list.

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M05_Configuring vSphere Networking | 1 - 28

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

Activity: Traffic Shaping Policy (1)

Which statement accurately describes the traffic
shaping policy configuration?
(Choose one.)
o Traffic shaping is activated on the entire
standard switch.
o The traffic shaping policy for the TestDev port
group overrides the policy defined on the
standard switch.
o The bandwidth used for normal operation by
VMs on the TestDev port group is 100 Mbps.
o The Accounting port group is subject to traffic
shaping, with an average bandwidth of 1 Gbps.

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M05_Configuring vSphere Networking | 1 - 32

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

Activity: Traffic Shaping Policy (2)

Which statement accurately describes the traffic
shaping policy configuration?
(Choose one.)
o Traffic shaping is activated on the entire
standard switch.
✓ The traffic shaping policy for the TestDev port
group overrides the policy defined on the
standard switch.
o The bandwidth used for normal operation by
VMs on the TestDev port group is 100 Mbps.
o The Accounting port group is subject to traffic
shaping, with an average bandwidth of 1 Gbps.

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M05_Configuring vSphere Networking | 1 - 33

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

About Distributed Switches

A distributed switch functions as a single virtual switch across all associated hosts. Distributed
switches have several benefits over standard switches:
• Distributed switches centralize the virtual network administration, and simplifies the data center
administration.
• Distributed switch ports are statically assigned by vCenter and offer more granular control over
network statistics and policies.

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M05_Configuring vSphere Networking | 1 - 39

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

Distributed Switch Architecture

Managed by vCenter, a distributed switch is a logical entity that you can use to create and maintain a
consistent virtual networking configuration throughout all your ESXi hosts.

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M05_Configuring vSphere Networking | 1 - 40

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

Standard and Distributed Switches: Shared Features

Standard and distributed switches share some features.

Feature Standard Switch Distributed Switch

Layer 2 switch ✓ ✓
VLAN segmentation ✓ ✓
802.1Q tagging ✓ ✓
IPv4 and IPv6 support ✓ ✓
NIC teaming ✓ ✓
Outbound traffic shaping ✓ ✓

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M05_Configuring vSphere Networking | 1 - 41

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

Distributed Switch Features

Distributed switches have several features that standard switches do not have.

Feature Standard Switch Distributed Switch

Inbound traffic shaping ✓
Configuration backup and restore ✓
Private VLANs ✓
Link Aggregation Control Protocol ✓
Data center level management ✓
vSphere vMotion migration of network state ✓
Network I/O Control ✓
Per-port policy settings ✓
Port state monitoring ✓
NetFlow ✓
Port mirroring ✓
Support for NSX ✓
© 2022 VMware, Inc. M05_Configuring vSphere Networking | 1 - 42
OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

Viewing Distributed Switches

In the vSphere Client, you can view the distributed switch configuration using the Topology pane in
the Configure tab.

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M05_Configuring vSphere Networking | 1 - 43

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

Discovery Protocols
Switch discovery protocols help network administrators gather configuration and connection
information about physical or virtual switches.
vSphere supports the following discovery protocols:
• Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP): For vSphere standard switches and distributed switches
connected to Cisco physical switches
• Link Layer Discovery Protocol (LLDP): A vendor-neutral protocol for distributed switches only
Standard switches can be configured to use CDP.
Distributed switches can use CDP or LLDP.

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M05_Configuring vSphere Networking | 1 - 44

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

Configuring CDP or LLDP

With CDP or LLDP enabled, you can configure a
virtual switch for different modes of operation:
• Listen: Information is received from the
physical switches.
• Advertise: Information is sent to the physical
switches.
• Both: Information is both sent to and received
from the physical switches.

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M05_Configuring vSphere Networking | 1 - 45

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

Configuring Inbound Traffic Shaping

Distributed switches support inbound traffic shaping and outbound traffic shaping.

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M05_Configuring vSphere Networking | 1 - 47

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

Load Balancing Method: Physical NIC Load

This method is supported only on distributed switches and is the recommended policy for distributed
port groups.

Load balancing based on physical NIC load

ensures that physical NIC capacity in a NIC team
is optimized. This feature works in the following
ways:
• It moves I/O flows among uplinks.
• A flow is moved only when the mean send or
receive utilization of an uplink exceeds 75
percent of the capacity over a 30-second
period.

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M05_Configuring vSphere Networking | 1 - 48

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

About Datastores
A datastore is a logical storage unit that can use
space on one or more physical storage devices.
Datastores are used to hold data such as VMs,
VM templates, and ISO images.
vSphere supports the following types of
datastores:
• VMFS
• NFS
• vSAN
• vSphere Virtual Volumes

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M06_Configuring vSphere Storage | 1-6

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

Datastore Access Methods

vSphere datastores store and access data as blocks or files:
Block-backed storage:
• Stores data as blocks (a sequence of bytes)
• Used on local storage
• Used on Storage Area Networks (SANs) and accessed through either iSCSI or Fibre Channel
• Used by VMFS, vSAN, and vSphere Virtual Volumes datastores
File-backed storage:
• Stores data hierarchically in files and folders
• Used on network-attached storage (NAS)
• Used by NFS and vSphere Virtual Volumes datastores

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M06_Configuring vSphere Storage | 1-7

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

Datastore Contents
Depending on the datastore type, contents can
be stored in the form of files or objects.
File-based datastores:
• A VM consists of a set of files.
• Each VM has its own directory.
• VMFS and NFS datastores hold files.
Object-based datastores:
• A VM consists of a set of data containers called
objects.
• vSAN and vSphere Virtual Volumes datastores
hold objects.

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M06_Configuring vSphere Storage | 1-8

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

Storage Overview
ESXi hosts should be configured with shared access to datastores.

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M06_Configuring vSphere Storage | 1 - 10

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

About VMFS Datastores

VMFS is a high-performance, cluster file system that serves as a repository for files such as VM files,
VM templates and ISO images.
A VMFS datastore is optimized for storing and accessing large files, such as virtual disks and memory
images of suspended VMs.
A VMFS datastore can have a maximum volume size of 64 TB.

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M06_Configuring vSphere Storage | 1 - 44

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

About vSphere Virtual Machine File System

ESXi hosts support vSphere Virtual Machine File
System (VMFS) VMFS5 and VMFS6:
• Features supported by both VMFS5 and
VMFS6:
– Concurrent access to shared storage
– Dynamic expansion
– On-disk locking
• Features supported by VMFS6:
– 4K native storage devices
– Automatic space reclamation
– 128 hosts per datastore

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M06_Configuring vSphere Storage | 1 - 13

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

About NFS
A Network File System (NFS) is a
file-sharing protocol that ESXi
hosts use to communicate with a
network-attached storage (NAS)
device.
NFS supports NFS 3 and 4.1
over TCP/IP.

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M06_Configuring vSphere Storage | 1 - 14

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

NFS Components
An NFS file system is on a NAS device that is called the NFS server.

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M06_Configuring vSphere Storage | 1 - 56

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

About vSAN
vSAN is a hypervisor-converged, software-
defined storage solution for virtual environments
that does not use traditional external storage.
By clustering host-attached solid-state drives
(SSDs) and hard disk drives (HDDs), vSAN
creates an aggregated datastore that is
accessible to all the ESXi hosts in the vSAN
cluster.

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M06_Configuring vSphere Storage | 1 - 15

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

About vSphere Virtual Volumes

vSphere Virtual Volumes provides several
functionalities:
• Native representation of VMDKs on SAN/NAS:
No LUNs or volume management
• Works with existing SAN/NAS systems
• A new control path for data operations at the
VM and VMDK level
• Snapshots, replications, and other operations
at the VM level on external storage
• Automates control of per-VM service levels by
using storage policies
• Standard access to storage with the vSphere
API for Storage Awareness protocol endpoint
• Storage containers that span an entire array

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M06_Configuring vSphere Storage | 1 - 16

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

About Raw Device Mapping

Although not a datastore, raw
device mapping (RDM) gives a
VM direct access to a physical
LUN.
The mapping file (-rdm.vmdk)
that points a VM to a LUN must
be stored on a VMFS datastore.

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M06_Configuring vSphere Storage | 1 - 17

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

Physical Storage Considerations

Before implementing your vSphere environment, discuss the storage needs with your storage
administration team. Consider the following factors:
• LUN sizes
• I/O bandwidth required by your applications
• I/O requests per second that a LUN is capable of
• Disk cache parameters
• Zoning and masking
• Multipathing setting for your storage arrays (active-active or active-passive)
• Export properties for NFS datastores

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M06_Configuring vSphere Storage | 1 - 18

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

Review of Learner Objectives

• Recognize vSphere storage technologies
• Identify types of datastores
• Recognize storage device naming conventions

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M06_Configuring vSphere Storage | 1 - 19

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

About Fibre Channel

Fibre Channel is a protocol used for accessing
storage devices across a network.
A Fibre Channel SAN is a specialized high-speed
network that connects your hosts to high-
performance storage devices.
The network uses the Fibre Channel protocol to
transport SCSI traffic from VMs to the Fibre
Channel SAN devices.
ESXi supports:
• 32 Gbps Fibre Channel
• Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE)

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M06_Configuring vSphere Storage | 1 - 22

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

iSCSI Components
An iSCSI SAN consists of an iSCSI storage system, which contains LUNs and storage processors.
Communication between the host and storage array occurs over an Ethernet network.

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M06_Configuring vSphere Storage | 1 - 29

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

iSCSI Components
An iSCSI SAN consists of an iSCSI storage system, which contains LUNs and storage processors.
Communication between the host and storage array occurs over an Ethernet network.

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M06_Configuring vSphere Storage | 1 - 29

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

Key Points
• ESXi hosts support various storage technologies: Direct-attached storage, Fibre Channel, FCoE,
iSCSI, and NAS.
• VMFS and NFS datastores hold VM files.
• vSAN and vSphere Virtual Volumes hold VM objects.
• With port binding, each VMkernel port that is connected to a separate NIC becomes a different
path that the iSCSI storage can use.
• Shared storage is integral to vSphere features such as vSphere vMotion, vSphere HA, and
vSphere DRS.
Questions?

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M06_Configuring vSphere Storage | 1 - 67

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

About VMware Tools

VMware Tools is a set of features that enhance the performance of a VM’s guest operating system.
Benefits and features include:
• Device drivers
— SVGA display
— VMXNET/VMXNET3
— Balloon driver for memory management
— Sync driver for quiescing I/O
— Paravirtual SCSI controller
• Increased graphical performance
• Improved mouse performance
• Guest OS heartbeat service
• Time synchronization
• Ability to shut down the VM remotely

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M07_Deploying Virtual Machines | 1 - 13

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

Virtual Machine Encapsulation

Each VM is stored either as a
collection of files or objects:
• Files in a directory on a VMFS
or NFS datastore
• Objects on a vSAN or vSphere
Virtual Volumes datastore
Each virtual disk is encapsulated
into a single file or object.

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M07_Deploying Virtual Machines | 1 - 23

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

About Virtual Machine Files

A VM includes a set of related files.

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M07_Deploying Virtual Machines | 1 - 24

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

About Thick-Provisioned Virtual Disks

Thick provisioning uses all the defined disk space
at the creation of the virtual disk, regardless of
how much disk space is actually used by the
guest operating system file system.
Thick-provisioned disk types are either eager
zeroed or lazy zeroed:
• In an eager-zeroed thick-provisioned disk,
every block is prefilled with a zero.
• In a lazy-zeroed thick-provisioned disk, a block
is filled with zeroes before data is written for
the first time.

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M07_Deploying Virtual Machines | 1 - 30

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

About Thin-Provisioned Virtual Disks

With thin provisioning, VMs use the disk space as
needed:
• Virtual disks use only the capacity needed to
hold the current files.
• The VM always sees the full allocated disk size.
Run the unmap command to reclaim the unused
space from the virtual disks.
Reporting and alerts help manage allocations and
capacity.
You can mix thick and thin formats.
The following examples show efficient use of
storage:
• Provisioned space for virtual disks: 140 GB
• Available datastore capacity: 100 GB
• Used datastore capacity: 80 GB

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M07_Deploying Virtual Machines | 1 - 31

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

Managing Datastores Containing Thin-Provisioned Disks

When the total provisioned space of thin-provisioned disks is greater than the size of the datastore,
the datastore becomes overcommitted.

To actively monitor datastore capacity: To actively manage datastore capacity:

• Set alarms to send notifications about: • Increase datastore capacity when necessary.
– Datastore disk overallocation • Use vSphere Storage vMotion to mitigate
space use problems on a particular datastore.
– VM disk use
• Use reporting to view space use.

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M07_Deploying Virtual Machines | 1 - 32

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

Thick-Provisioned and Thin-Provisioned Disks

Virtual disk options differ in terms of creation time, block allocation, layout, and zeroing out of
allocated file blocks.

Thick Provisioned Thick Provisioned Thin

Lazy-Zeroed Eager-Zeroed Provisioned
Creation time Fast Slow and proportional to Fastest
disk size
Block allocation Fully preallocated Fully preallocated Allocated and zeroed
out on demand at first
write to block
Virtual disk layout Higher chance of Higher chance of Layout varies
contiguous file blocks contiguous file blocks according to the
dynamic state of the
volume at time of block
allocation
Zeroing out of File blocks are zeroed File blocks are allocated File blocks are zeroed
allocated file blocks out when each block is and zeroed out when disk out when blocks are
first written to is created allocated

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M07_Deploying Virtual Machines | 1 - 33

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

Inflating Thin-Provisioned Disks

Thin-provisioned virtual disks can be converted to a thick, eager-zeroed format.
Choose one of the following methods to inflate a thin-provisioned disk on a VM that is either
powered on or off:
• Select the VM’s file with the .vmdk extension and select Inflate.
• Select thick-provisioned when you use vSphere Storage vMotion to migrate the VM to a different
datastore.

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M07_Deploying Virtual Machines | 1 - 46

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

About Templates
A template is a static image of a
virtual machine. You use
templates to create and
provision new VMs.
A template typically includes:
• A guest operating system
• One or more applications
• A specific VM hardware
configuration
• VMware Tools
To use templates, you must be
connected to vCenter.

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M07_Deploying Virtual Machines | 1 - 54

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

Guest Operating System Customization

When you deploy a VM from a template or clone a VM, you can customize some aspects of the guest
operating system.
By customizing a guest operating system, you can change information, including the following
details:
• Computer name
• Network settings
• License settings
• Time zone
• Administrator or root password
• Windows Security Identifier

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M07_Deploying Virtual Machines | 1 - 61

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

About Customization Specifications

You can create a customization specification to prepare the guest operating system:
• Specifications are stored in the vCenter database.
• Windows and Linux guests are supported.

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M07_Deploying Virtual Machines | 1 - 62

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

Guest Operating System Customization

When you deploy a VM from a template or clone a VM, you can customize some aspects of the guest
operating system.
By customizing a guest operating system, you can change information, including the following
details:
• Computer name
• Network settings
• License settings
• Time zone
• Administrator or root password
• Windows Security Identifier

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M07_Deploying Virtual Machines | 1 - 61

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

About Customization Specifications

You can create a customization specification to prepare the guest operating system:
• Specifications are stored in the vCenter database.
• Windows and Linux guests are supported.

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M07_Deploying Virtual Machines | 1 - 62

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

About Content Libraries

Content libraries are repositories of OVF templates and other file types that can be shared and
synchronized across vCenter systems globally.

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M07_Deploying Virtual Machines | 1 - 68

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

Benefits of Content Libraries

Storage efficiency and consistency are key reasons to install and
use a content library.
Using content libraries, administrators can perform the following
functions:
• Store and share content, such as templates, ISO images,
scripts.
• Perform distributed file management.
• Synchronize content libraries across sites and vCenter
instances.
• Mount an ISO file directly from a content library.
• Maintain versions of VM templates.
Content libraries are stored on vSphere datastores.

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M07_Deploying Virtual Machines | 1 - 69

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

Content Library Types

Content is stored in one of the content library types:
• Local: Content that is controlled by the administrator
• Published: A local library that is available for subscription
• Subscribed: A library that synchronizes with a published library
Administrators can change content in a local or published content library.
Users cannot change content in a subscribed content library.
A subscribed content library cannot be published.

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M07_Deploying Virtual Machines | 1 - 70

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

About VM Migration
Migration means moving a VM from one host, datastore, or vCenter instance to another host,
datastore, or vCenter instance.
Migration can be cold or hot:
• A cold migration moves a powered-off or suspended VM.
• A hot migration moves a powered-on VM.
vCenter performs compatibility checks before migrating suspended or powered-on VMs to ensure
that the VM is compatible with the target host.

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M08_Managing Virtual Machines | 1-6

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

About vSphere vMotion

A vSphere vMotion migration moves a powered-on VM from one host (compute resource) to
another.
vSphere vMotion provides the following capabilities:
• Improvement in overall hardware use
• Continuous VM operation while accommodating scheduled ESXi host downtime
• vSphere DRS to balance VMs across hosts

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M08_Managing Virtual Machines | 1-8

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

CPU Constraints on vSphere vMotion Migration

CPU compatibility between source and target hosts is a vSphere vMotion requirement that must be
met.

CPU Characteristics Exact Match Required By Reason

Source Host and Target Host
Clock speeds, cache sizes, No The VMkernel virtualizes these
hyperthreading, and number of characteristics.
cores
Manufacturer (Intel or AMD) Yes Instruction sets contain many
family and generation small differences.
(Opteron4, Intel Westmere)
Presence or absence of SSE3, Yes Multimedia instructions are
SSSE3, or SSE4.1 instructions usable directly by applications.
Virtualization hardware assist For 32-bit VMs: No The VMkernel virtualizes this
characteristic.
For 64-bit VMs on Intel: Yes Intel 64-bit with VMware
implementation uses Intel VT.

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M08_Managing Virtual Machines | 1 - 21

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

CPU Constraints on vSphere vMotion Migration

CPU compatibility between source and target hosts is a vSphere vMotion requirement that must be
met.

CPU Characteristics Exact Match Required By Reason

Source Host and Target Host
Clock speeds, cache sizes, No The VMkernel virtualizes these
hyperthreading, and number of characteristics.
cores
Manufacturer (Intel or AMD) Yes Instruction sets contain many
family and generation small differences.
(Opteron4, Intel Westmere)
Presence or absence of SSE3, Yes Multimedia instructions are
SSSE3, or SSE4.1 instructions usable directly by applications.
Virtualization hardware assist For 32-bit VMs: No The VMkernel virtualizes this
characteristic.
For 64-bit VMs on Intel: Yes Intel 64-bit with VMware
implementation uses Intel VT.

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M08_Managing Virtual Machines | 1 - 21

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

About Enhanced vMotion Compatibility

Enhanced vMotion Compatibility is a cluster feature that enables vSphere vMotion migrations
between hosts without identical feature sets.
The feature uses CPU baselines to configure all the processors in the cluster that are activated for
Enhanced vMotion Compatibility.

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M08_Managing Virtual Machines | 1 - 22

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

EVC Cluster Requirements for CPU Mode

All hosts in the cluster must meet several CPU-based requirements:
• Use CPUs from a single vendor, either Intel or AMD.
• Be activated for hardware virtualization: AMD-V or Intel VT.
• Be activated for execution-disable technology: AMD No eXecute (NX) or Intel eXecute Disable
(XD).
• Be configured for vSphere vMotion migration.
Applications in VMs must be CPU ID compatible.

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M08_Managing Virtual Machines | 1 - 23

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

About Enhanced vMotion Compatibility

Enhanced vMotion Compatibility is a cluster feature that enables vSphere vMotion migrations
between hosts without identical feature sets.
The feature uses CPU baselines to configure all the processors in the cluster that are activated for
Enhanced vMotion Compatibility.

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M08_Managing Virtual Machines | 1 - 22

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

EVC Cluster Requirements for CPU Mode

All hosts in the cluster must meet several CPU-based requirements:
• Use CPUs from a single vendor, either Intel or AMD.
• Be activated for hardware virtualization: AMD-V or Intel VT.
• Be activated for execution-disable technology: AMD No eXecute (NX) or Intel eXecute Disable
(XD).
• Be configured for vSphere vMotion migration.
Applications in VMs must be CPU ID compatible.

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M08_Managing Virtual Machines | 1 - 23

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

VM Memory Overcommitment
Memory is overcommitted when the combined
configured memory footprint of all powered-on
VMs exceeds that of the host memory sizes.
When memory is overcommitted:
• VMs do not always use their full allocated
memory
• To improve memory use, an ESXi host reclaims
memory from idle VMs to allocate to VMs that
need more memory
• VM memory can be swapped out to the .vswp
file
• VM memory overhead can be swapped out to
the vmx-*.vswp file

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M08_Managing Virtual Machines | 1 - 77

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

Memory Overcommit Techniques

An ESXi host uses memory overcommit techniques to allow the overcommitment of memory while
possibly avoiding the need to page memory out to disk.

Methods Used by the ESXi Host Details

Transparent page sharing This method economizes the use of physical memory pages. In
this method, pages with identical contents are stored only
once.
Ballooning This method uses the VMware Tools balloon driver to
deallocate memory from virtual machines. The ballooning
mechanism becomes active when memory is scarce,
sometimes forcing VMs to use their own paging areas.
Memory compression This method reduces a VM's memory footprint by storing
memory in a compressed format.
Host-level SSD swapping The ESXi host can swap out memory to locally-attached solid-
state drives.
VM memory paging to disk Using VMkernel swap space is the last resort because of poor
performance.

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M08_Managing Virtual Machines | 1 - 78

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

VM Memory Overcommitment
Memory is overcommitted when the combined
configured memory footprint of all powered-on
VMs exceeds that of the host memory sizes.
When memory is overcommitted:
• VMs do not always use their full allocated
memory
• To improve memory use, an ESXi host reclaims
memory from idle VMs to allocate to VMs that
need more memory
• VM memory can be swapped out to the .vswp
file
• VM memory overhead can be swapped out to
the vmx-*.vswp file

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M08_Managing Virtual Machines | 1 - 77

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

Memory Overcommit Techniques

An ESXi host uses memory overcommit techniques to allow the overcommitment of memory while
possibly avoiding the need to page memory out to disk.

Methods Used by the ESXi Host Details

Transparent page sharing This method economizes the use of physical memory pages. In
this method, pages with identical contents are stored only
once.
Ballooning This method uses the VMware Tools balloon driver to
deallocate memory from virtual machines. The ballooning
mechanism becomes active when memory is scarce,
sometimes forcing VMs to use their own paging areas.
Memory compression This method reduces a VM's memory footprint by storing
memory in a compressed format.
Host-level SSD swapping The ESXi host can swap out memory to locally-attached solid-
state drives.
VM memory paging to disk Using VMkernel swap space is the last resort because of poor
performance.

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M08_Managing Virtual Machines | 1 - 78

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

About vSphere Clusters

A cluster is used in vSphere to share physical
resources between a group of ESXi hosts.
vCenter manages cluster resources as a single
pool of resources.
You can create one or more clusters based on the
purpose each cluster must fulfill, for example:
• Management
• Production
• Compute
A cluster can contain up to 96 ESXi hosts.

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M09_Deploying and Configuring vSphere Clusters | 1-6

OFFICIAL
vSphere Distributed Resource Scheduler

© 2019 VMware Inc. All rights reserved.

 OFFICIAL

About vSphere Distributed Resource Scheduler

vSphere Distributed Resource
Scheduler (DRS) helps to
improve resource allocation
across all hosts in a cluster.
vSphere DRS use cases:
• Initial placement when a VM is
powered on
• Load balancing
• Migrating VMs when an ESXi
host is placed in maintenance
mode

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M09_Deploying and Configuring vSphere Clusters | 1 - 21

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

vSphere DRS: VM Focused

vSphere DRS is VM focused:
• While the VM is powered on, vSphere DRS operates on an individual VM basis by ensuring that
each VM's resource requirements are met.
• vSphere DRS calculates a score for each VM and gives recommendations (or migrates VMs) for
meeting VM's resource requirements.

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M09_Deploying and Configuring vSphere Clusters | 1 - 22

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

About the VM DRS Score

The VM DRS score tracks how well a VM's resource requirements are met.
• Scores closer to 0% indicate severe resource contention.
• Scores closer to 100% indicate mild to no resource contention.

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M09_Deploying and Configuring vSphere Clusters | 1 - 23

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

VM DRS Score List

The cluster's Monitor tab lists the VM DRS Score and more detailed metrics for all the VMs in the
cluster.

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M09_Deploying and Configuring vSphere Clusters | 1 - 24

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

vSphere DRS Cluster Requirements

ESXi hosts that are added to a vSphere DRS cluster must meet certain requirements to use cluster
features successfully:
• To use vSphere DRS for load balancing, the hosts in your cluster must be part of a vSphere
vMotion network:
– If the hosts are not part of a vSphere vMotion network, vSphere DRS can still make initial
placement recommendations.
– vSphere DRS works best if the VMs meet vSphere vMotion requirements.
• Configure all managed hosts to use shared storage.

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M09_Deploying and Configuring vSphere Clusters | 1 - 25

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

vSphere DRS Settings: Automation Level

You can configure the automation level for the initial placement of VMs and for dynamic balancing
while VMs are running.

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M09_Deploying and Configuring vSphere Clusters | 1 - 26

OFFICIAL
Introduction to vSphere High Availability

© 2019 VMware Inc. All rights reserved.

 OFFICIAL

Protection at Every Level

With vSphere, you can reduce planned downtime, prevent unplanned downtime, and recover rapidly
from outages.

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M09_Deploying and Configuring vSphere Clusters | 1 - 45

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

About vSphere HA
vSphere High Availability (HA) provides rapid recovery from outages and cost-effective high
availability for applications running in VMs. vSphere HA protects application availability in several
ways.

Protects Against How Does vSphere HA Provide Protection?

ESXi host failure By restarting the VMs on other hosts within the cluster
VM failure By restarting the VM when a VMware Tools heartbeat is not
received within a set time
Application failure By restarting the VM when an application heartbeat is not
received within a set time
Datastore accessibility failure By restarting the affected VMs on other hosts that still can
access the datastores.
Network isolation By restarting VMs if their host becomes isolated on the
heartbeat network. This protection is provided even if the
network becomes partitioned.
© 2022 VMware, Inc. M09_Deploying and Configuring vSphere Clusters | 1 - 46
OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

Importance of Heartbeat Networks

A heartbeat network is implemented by using a
VMkernel port that is marked for management or
vSAN traffic.
Heartbeats have the following characteristics:
• They are sent between the primary host and
the secondary hosts.
• They are used to determine whether a primary
host or a secondary host has failed.
• They are sent over a heartbeat network.
When both vSAN and vSphere HA are activated
on the cluster, vSphere HA uses the vSAN
network as the heartbeat network instead of the
management network.

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M09_Deploying and Configuring vSphere Clusters | 1 - 51

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

vSphere HA Architecture: Agent Communication

When vSphere HA is configured
in a cluster, the Fault Domain
Manager (FDM) service is
uploaded to each host in the
cluster and started.
The FDM service is also known
as the vSphere HA agent.

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M09_Deploying and Configuring vSphere Clusters | 1 - 58

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

vSphere HA Architecture: Network Heartbeats

The primary host sends periodic
heartbeats to the secondary
hosts.
In this way, the secondary hosts
know that the primary host is
alive, and the primary host
knows that the secondary hosts
are alive.

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M09_Deploying and Configuring vSphere Clusters | 1 - 59

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

vSphere HA Failure Scenarios

vSphere HA can identify and respond to various types of failures:
• Secondary host failure
• Primary host failure
• Network failure (host isolation)
• Datastore accessibility failures:
– APD
– PDL

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M09_Deploying and Configuring vSphere Clusters | 1 - 61

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

© 2022 VMware, Inc.

OFFICIAL
© 2019 VMware Inc. All rights reserved.
 OFFICIAL

vSphere HA Settings: Admission Control

vCenter uses admission control
to ensure the following:
• Sufficient resources are
available in a cluster to
provide failover protection.
• VM resource reservations are
respected.
Admission control settings:
• Disabled
• Slot Policy
• Cluster Resource Percentage
(default)
• Dedicated Failover Hosts

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M09_Deploying and Configuring vSphere Clusters | 1 - 80

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

Example: Admission Control Using Cluster Resources Percentage

Example of calculating total failover capacity
using cluster resource percentages:
• Total cluster capacity:
– CPU: 18 GHz
– Memory: 24 GB
• Total VM reservations:
– CPU: 7 GHz
– Memory: 6 GB
• Current failover CPU capacity is 61%:
((18 GHz - 7 GHz)/18 GHz) = 61%
• Current failover memory capacity is 75%:
((24 GB - 6 GB)/24 GB) = 75%

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M09_Deploying and Configuring vSphere Clusters | 1 - 81

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

Example: Admission Control Using Slots (1)

A slot is calculated by combining the largest
memory reservation and the largest CPU
reservation of any running VM in the cluster.
vSphere HA performs admission control by
calculating the following values:
• Slot size:
– In this example, the slot size is 2 GHz CPU
and 2 GB memory.
• Number of slots each host in the cluster can
hold:
– Three
– The cluster has a total of nine slots (3 + 3 +
3).

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M09_Deploying and Configuring vSphere Clusters | 1 - 82

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

Example: Admission Control Using Slots (2)

vSphere HA also calculates the current failover capacity. In this example, the failover capacity is one
host:

• If the first host fails, six slots remain in the

cluster, which is sufficient for all five of the
powered-on VMs.
• If the first and second hosts fail, only three
slots remain, which is insufficient for all five of
the VMs.
• If the current failover capacity is less than the
configured failover capacity, vSphere HA does
not allow any more VMs to power on.

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M09_Deploying and Configuring vSphere Clusters | 1 - 83

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

About vSphere Fault Tolerance

vSphere Fault Tolerance protects mission-critical, high-performance applications regardless of the
operating system used.

vSphere Fault Tolerance provides instantaneous

failover and continuous availability:
• Zero downtime
• Zero data loss
• No loss of VM network connectivity

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M09_Deploying and Configuring vSphere Clusters | 1 - 90

OFFICIAL
 OFFICIAL

About vSphere Fault Tolerance

vSphere Fault Tolerance protects mission-critical, high-performance applications regardless of the
operating system used.

vSphere Fault Tolerance provides instantaneous

failover and continuous availability:
• Zero downtime
• Zero data loss
• No loss of VM network connectivity

© 2022 VMware, Inc. M09_Deploying and Configuring vSphere Clusters | 1 - 90

OFFICIAL